Page 9

9

BEAR

“Well, this is probably the room I’ll spend the most time in,” Bear said, as they surveyed the massive study located next to the master suite. “To be honest, this was the only room in the house I really looked at before I decided to rent it,” he added, speaking to Aleena, who was looking with awe at the rows and rows of leather-bound books that filled the many shelves.

They were mostly Karpsian law practices and treaty agreements—which Bear thought would be extremely useful in his negotiations—but there were also some cookbooks and some popular novels as well. These had been sequestered in a single bookcase, as though they might infect the more important books with their frivolity.

“Oh—there’s a woman’s shelf!” Aleena exclaimed, going to the case full of novels and cookbooks. “And look—there’s a whole collection of Salana novels!”

“Salana? Is that an author you like?” Bear asked, going to look over her shoulder.

“Oh no—it’s the main character of the books. Salana has wild adventures—she goes places on her own and travels all over the place—without a man!” Aleena’s eyes were shining with excitement. “In one of them, she even goes to a foreign land and gets mistaken for a visiting ruler and has a man act as her servant and wait on her!”

“That sounds exciting,” Bear remarked, smiling. Salana’s adventures sounded extremely tame to him, but he supposed in such a repressive society the idea of a male waiting on a female would be a novel concept.

“Some people say the adventures of Salana are too exciting.” She gave him an anxious look. “Many of the books have been banned from the booksellers’ stalls and libraries. But there seems to be a complete collection here.” She ran one finger lovingly over the spines of the books.

“Well then, you can catch up on the series—maybe there are some you haven’t read,” he remarked.

“Really?” Her eyes widened. “I mean…you don’t mind me reading them?”

“Why should I?” Bear shrugged. “To be honest, I’ll be spending a lot of my time studying and working on the trade agreement I came here to make with the Karpsian Sigma government for wormhole rights. So why would I mind if you read to pass the time?”

“You’re not afraid the Salana books will give me…wrong ideas?” she asked, still looking at him wide-eyed.

“What? The idea that a female can live her own life and travel without a male companion?” Bear frowned. “I don’t think those are wrong or bad ideas at all. In my culture, females are given as much independence as males.”

Aleena shook her head in wonderment.

“What an amazing place you must live,” she remarked. “But…there are other ideas in the Salana books. I mean, they include adventures Salana has where she is…is sometimes intimate with a man. I mean—she kisses men who she is not Joined with, if you know what I mean.” Her bronze cheeks went dark with a blush as though she was admitting something shameful.

Bear tried not to laugh at her innocence because it was clear she was serious. He had seen some of the books the human females read back on the Mother Ship—the idea of a woman kissing someone she wasn’t Joined to was extremely tame compared to those.

“That’s fine,” he said seriously, since Aleena was clearly asking for his permission to read the books. “I know females like to read about romance—I’m sure that’s part of the story.”

Aleena looked relieved and excited at the same time.

“Oh, I can’t wait to start reading some of the ones I’ve missed in the series!” she exclaimed, running her finger over the spines of the books again. “You know there’s a rumor that the author of the Salana books is actually a woman ?” she added in a hushed tone.

Bear frowned.

“Would that really be so strange? A female writing books for other females?”

“Oh, but here women are not allowed to write books. It’s only been in the past hundred solar years or so that we’ve even been allowed to read them!” Aleena explained.

Bear’s frown deepened—he no longer found this a laughing matter. Any society who kept their females in ignorance and intellectual poverty on purpose was contemptible and wrong.

“You should be allowed to read and write anything you want,” he told Aleena fiercely. “My people—the Kindred—believe that females should be elevated, not denigrated.”

She looked surprised all over again.

“Your people sound very strange to me, my Lord Husband,” she said, forgetting to use his name. “Strange…but nice,” she added, with a tentative smile.

“It shouldn’t be considered strange to treat your mate as your equal,” Bear growled. “As long as we’re together, I want you to remember that—and to feel free to read and write or do whatever makes you happy.”

Aleena’s pale purple eyes were so large they seemed in danger of taking over her face.

“You’re very kind,” she murmured at last. “But…you would even let me write?”

“Of course! Write whatever you want.” He threw out a hand towards the bookshelf. “Maybe you’d like to write your own romance novel.”

“Maybe I would…” Aleena nibbled her lush lower lip. “I…I kept a journal for a time,” she admitted in a low voice, as though confessing to a crime. “It was only supposed to be a record of my day and the recipes I liked but then I started writing little stories—just about the people I met and the things I thought they might do.”

“Journaling is a good way to clear your head,” Bear remarked. “I used to keep a journal myself. What happened to yours?”

Aleena looked down at her hands.

“My father found it. It was during one of the rare times he visited us and inspected our living quarters,” she said in a low voice.

“Was he upset that you’d been writing?” Bear asked.

“It was…one of the only times he beat me.” She looked up and he saw the hurt in her eyes. “He’s usually a very kind man but he said…he said he had to beat the will to write out of me. He told me no man would ever want me for a wife if he found out I’d been writing stories.”

Bear felt a wave of protective anger sweep over him. How dare that idiot, Sir Greggor, beat his daughter just for writing? Creativity should be encouraged and nourished—not punished in that way. He had a feeling if Aleena’s father was there in front of him, he wouldn’t have been able to stop himself from punching him in the face!

The intensity of his emotions surprised him. Yes, it was unpleasant to be working with a people who were so backwards when it came to the way they treated their females, but he hadn’t expected to have such a visceral reaction to the tales of their cruelty.

“Your father was wrong,” he said at last, trying to keep his temper in check. Aleena didn’t know him well enough to know that his anger wasn’t directed at her. “I do value a female who can read and write. Some of my favorite authors in my own culture are female.”

“Really? You have female authors? I mean, everyone knows they write? They don’t have to use a man’s name?” Aleena asked eagerly.

Bear smiled.

“We do have female authors and no, they don’t have to write under a male name. And you can write too—as much as you want. I’ll even give you what you need to do it. Do you want another journal to write in or would you prefer to type?”

“Oh, I don’t know how to type, but a journal would be wonderful!”

“We’ll get you one then,” Bear promised her, smiling at her excitement.

He liked the idea of nourishing her creativity—of giving her room to grow. His new bride was like a flower that had been raised in a small, cramped corner that was dark most of the time, he thought. He wanted to get her out into the sunlight and give her a place to bloom. He wanted to see her fulfill her potential.

It didn’t occur to him that he was thinking of her as his bride or that he was picturing their relationship as a long-term affair. He only knew he wanted to see Aleena happy and watch that beautiful smile spread across her lovely face again and again.